CEO · founded 2023
Starlyte Imaging
A software company building modular, fast, reliable device control applications for microscopy. Our flagship is Nebula, open microscopy control software.
About
Austin Blanco
For the last 20 years, I’ve worked in the microscopy, imaging, and custom engineering world.
The short version
Engineer, explainer, pilot.
- Now
- CEO, Starlyte Imaging (founded 2023)
- Also
- President, Advanced Research Consulting (founded 2014)
- Field
- Microscopy, imaging & custom engineering
- Writing
- 409 posts since November 2007
- Off hours
- Flying, CNC machines, 3D printers, electronics
Twenty years ago I fell into a career in the life science imaging industry, working for an integration and microscope dealer in southern California. One of my first jobs was installing MetaMorph, and watching a camera snap images as a filter wheel switched positions was all it took.
I went from building systems, to maintaining them in the field, to offering complete hardware and software systems as a direct rep for Universal Imaging Corporation. Then I moved back near my hometown for an imaging job with Technical Instruments covering UC Davis. The territory ran from Bakersfield to Eureka and most of Nevada, so I covered it in my own plane.
In 2012 I left for a startup. In 2014 I founded Advanced Research Consulting, an R&D optical systems engineering and software development firm, and the home of the Triggerscope controllers. In 2023 my friend and colleague Jacob Gewerth and I launched Starlyte Imaging to build Nebula: microscopy control software with open Python drivers, fair pricing, and honest support.
Along the way I’ve written 409 posts on this site, because I wanted to provide a single place where anyone can find good information on how to use microscopes, cameras, light sources and imaging software.
Career
The light path so far
- ~2006
Fell into imaging
An integration and microscope dealer in southern California. Installing MetaMorph, then field service, then a direct rep for Universal Imaging Corporation. How Nebula began
- Nov 2007
Started writing
The first posts: cleaning CCD camera windows, quick resolution calculations, and Microscopy 101.
- 2007–2012
Technical Instruments
An imaging job covering UC Davis, then a whole territory from Bakersfield to Eureka. Some days at Stanford, UCSF or UC Berkeley building a system, training users, or writing code to drive a device. Everything changes…
- 2011
118 posts in one year
The busiest year on the blog, and the year the desktop CNC machine got finished. Read the 2011 posts
- 2012
Everything changes
Left for a startup: “this is one path I must follow to its end.”
- 2013
Rebuilt an airplane engine
A large bird flew through the prop; the engine was due for an overhaul anyway. The engine rebuild
- 2014
Founded Advanced Research Consulting
R&D optical systems engineering and software development.
- 2015
The Triggerscope
The first Triggerscope controller, then Triggerscope 2 and 16 later that year. Triggerscope 4 followed in 2020.
- 2019
On a lifetime of learning
Why project-based learning is how I’ve learned almost everything. Read the essay
- 2023
Founded Starlyte Imaging
With Jacob Gewerth, to build Nebula.
- 2025
Nebula at Society for Neuroscience
In San Diego with Zaber, running the Zaber Nucleus MVR inverted modular microscope.
- 2026
Triggerscope Mini
Released in February, plus a growing Nebula hardware list and the TTL control explainer.
Beyond the microscope
Flying, wrenching,
and learning by building.
2007–2012 · Flying
The plane gave me the legs
Eureka in 1.3 hours instead of five or so by road. In four years: 698 landings at San Carlos and 728.8 hours in the air.
2013 · The engine rebuild
A bird, a prop strike, an overhaul
I’m a wrench turner, and I love working on machines.
2019 · Project-based learning
Take on a project, then the next class
A Kickstarter CNC kit, then a CNC conversion of a used RF-45 mill. “I don’t think there is an upper limit.”
2014 · Growing up in a maker world
“More of Austin’s junk…”
What I learned taking things apart as a kid is what feeds my family now.
Two companies
Where the work lives now
President · founded 2014
Advanced Research Consulting
An R&D optical systems engineering and software development firm, and the makers of the Triggerscope hardware controllers.
Contact